Bad Airline/Good Airline Experiences

[canadiansnowbird]

Hi All:

 

I should probably post this on the airline thread but, I wanted to get Princess passengers experiences since one of our cruises will probably be through Princess as it is split air through two distant cities. (Toronto to San Francisco and Sydney to Toronto). The other cruise is to and from Seattle.

 

If I book the Alaskan cruise from Buffalo to Seattle on my own, what airlines and airplanes should I avoid?

I have looked at some scheduling and some are Buffalo to Atlanta to Seattle, some are Buffalo to Cleveland to Seattle, some are Buffalo to Chicago to Seattle. They all seem to be small planes (50 to 124 seat ones) The prices are 1/2 of what I would pay direct from Toronto to Seattle, so it makes sense to go out of Buffalo.

 

What airlines are on time? (as there is just one hour between some of these flights)

 

We have very rarely booked a one stop trip. I can remember only one from Toronto to Barcelona on British Air through Heathrow. Liked British Air very much but the crowds in Heathrow were daunting.

 

For our return from Sydney, what airports would you avoid - L.A. - San Francisco - Vancouver, or are they all easy to get around? I know we will have to land in one of them.

 

Snowbird

[Cal Cruiser]

San Franciso or L.A. are Ok (No airports are better than OK) Vancouver is a nightmare.

L.A. is the best for me but I live about 40 miles from it. It never seems to be pretty good in the amount of people in it, and the check in is pretty good. Hope this helps you.

[DGSFlorida]

If you want historical data on which airlines/flights are likely to be on time, you can check this on http://www.flightstats.com . It will show you the on-time performance and likelihood of cancellation, etc. for most any flight. However, some common sense here is important. Fewest number of connections, plenty of time between connections, and perhaps arriving a day ahead of time are the best policy. We also check whether there is a likely additional flight going the same place if a connection is missed. Also avoid known bottlenecks like traveling through the NYC airports late on a Friday afternoon.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

You might like to try V Australia for your return trip Sydney - LA. It is getting rave reviews since it started and have some really good prices and with the exchange rate for US quite a bargain for you.

 

We are booked in them for Feb to LA.

 

http://www.vaustralia.com.au/

[chipmaster]

Hi All:

 

I should probably post this on the airline thread but, I wanted to get Princess passengers experiences since one of our cruises will probably be through Princess as it is split air through two distant cities. (Toronto to San Francisco and Sydney to Toronto). The other cruise is to and from Seattle.

 

If I book the Alaskan cruise from Buffalo to Seattle on my own, what airlines and airplanes should I avoid?

I have looked at some scheduling and some are Buffalo to Atlanta to Seattle, some are Buffalo to Cleveland to Seattle, some are Buffalo to Chicago to Seattle. They all seem to be small planes (50 to 124 seat ones) The prices are 1/2 of what I would pay direct from Toronto to Seattle, so it makes sense to go out of Buffalo.

 

What airlines are on time? (as there is just one hour between some of these flights)

 

We have very rarely booked a one stop trip. I can remember only one from Toronto to Barcelona on British Air through Heathrow. Liked British Air very much but the crowds in Heathrow were daunting.

 

For our return from Sydney, what airports would you avoid - L.A. - San Francisco - Vancouver, or are they all easy to get around? I know we will have to land in one of them.

 

Snowbird

 

As the other poster said there are two guys on the airline threads who are veterans.

 

You don't memtion the airlines, but my guess is Atlanta is delta and its subsidery, Cleveland is Northwest, and Chicago would be AA or United.

I don't think you'll find them to different. If you are going in the summer I think its a crap shoot with summer thunderstorms. My preception is that chicago and Clevend are far more direct flight saving you at least a couple hours in actual fly time then going thru Atlanta.

 

Given multiple connects in summer / thuderstorm time I'd figure a full day travel. Leave as early as you can so you can avoid the historical thunderstorm activity that always brews its head in the summer. I'd plan two hour window to insure not missing a connect but that leaves you with 4 hours of layover and 5 hours of flight for a ful day wasted to travel but the nature of doing multiple connects versus paying more for direct. Only you can decide what is best.

 

Many regionals fly jets for the longer flights. For shorter ones many regionals have gone back to turbo props are they are so much cheaper to operate in these difficult economic times.

 

Good luck

[marne001]

For airline equipment info checkout seatguru dot com.

[NSWP]

I travelled on Air New Zealand, Sydney to LA. Excellent service, on time, a little more seat pitch/leg room in economy on the 747-400. I would fly with them again, so you Americans looking for a different airline other than United, try Air NZ.

 

For flights through Singapore, you cannot beat Singapore Airlines, they have the big A380's, was on them recently.

[chamima]

As the other poster said there are two guys on the airline threads who are veterans.

 

 

.

 

Good luck

 

 

What airline threads? I've looked at the list several times and see NOTHING referring to airlines! :o

[Chesterpeake]

Having lived in Toronto, with Pearson being the most expensive airport in North America, I know why you are looking to begin your flight to Seattle from Buffalo. I've driven down there to catch cheaper flights myself.

If you are an Air Canada frequent flyer, Aeroplan, you might look into their Star Alliance partner, United, going through Chicago.

However, you might just find the better price using Delta out of Buffalo. I wouldn't go Buffalo-Atlanta-Seattle which would add extra unnecesary hours to your travel. See if you can't find reasonably priced tickets on this route (if it is offered): Buffalo-Cincinnati-Seattle on Delta. You will have the extra bonus of avoiding the congestion and delays at Atlanta, Chicago, etc.

Since Delta flies nonstop from Toronto to Cincinnati, also check out Toronto-Cincinnati-Seattle prices with them.

[skf]

Cincinnati isn't a bad aeroport, we have gone thru there several times w/ Delta, changing from little planes to bigger. Do avoid ATL, it's in the wrong direction for you.

[cruisemom42]

What airline threads? I've looked at the list several times and see NOTHING referring to airlines! :o

 

I believe he was referring to the "Cruise Air" board here on CC.

[chamima]

I believe he was referring to the "Cruise Air" board here on CC.

 

Found it. Thanks

[canadiansnowbird]

Thank you all:

 

This has given me some food for thought. Buffalo - Atlanta - Seattle is out.

 

Billy and Charlie's Mum: Thank you for the VAustralia site - will keep an eye on the fares for next October. We plan to stay in Australia after our cruise, so the return date is up in the air right now. Silly to turn around and get on a plane after sailing all that way. Although there are quite a few on our Roll call for the Sapphire that are doing a B2B and sailing back to L.A. They must live on the west coast and have been to Australia before!

 

Snowbird

[Chesterpeake]

Canadiansnowbird,

I went onto Delta Airlines website to see if the route I suggested (Buffalo-Cincinnati-Seattle) is possible. Not only is it possible, but it is affordable: about US$253 per person, plus taxes and fees in June, 2010.

You can also do the Toronto-Cincinnati-Seattle route, but the cost is high: Subtotal per passenger: $772.37 (CAD)

I don't know the exact dates of your travel so I just put in some random dates for next June on their multi-city reservation form. There were two choices, but one left in the evening and would require a hotel overnight somewhere. The flights I chose would get you to Seattle by noon and would leave Seattle on the return about the same time. Here is the report:

 

Your Flight Selection:

 

 

Leg 1: Buffalo, NY (BUF) to Cincinnati, OH (CVG) on Thu, 10 Jun 2010

Leg 2: Cincinnati, OH (CVG) to Seattle, WA (SEA) on Thu, 10 Jun 2010

Leg 3: Seattle, WA (SEA) to Cincinnati, OH (CVG) on Thu, 24 Jun 2010

Leg 4: Cincinnati, OH (CVG) to Buffalo, NY (BUF) on Thu, 24 Jun 2010

 

 

Your Flight Selection:DepartsArrivesStopsFlights & Cabin (Class)Travel TimeLeg 1: Buffalo, NY (BUF) to Cincinnati, OH (CVG) on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 6:10am

BUF 7:43amCVG Nonstop Delta 4547

CRJ 100

operated by Skywest Air

In-Flight Services

Coach (L)

View Seats

 

 

 

1 hr 33 min Leg 2: Cincinnati, OH (CVG) to Seattle, WA (SEA) on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 8:55am

CVG 11:04amSEA Nonstop Delta 1575

Boeing 737-800

In-Flight Services

Coach (L)

View Seats

 

 

 

5 hr 9 min Leg 3: Seattle, WA (SEA) to Cincinnati, OH (CVG) on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:45am

SEA 7:04pmCVG Nonstop Delta 1128

Boeing 737-800

In-Flight Services

Coach (K)

View Seats

 

 

 

4 hr 19 min Leg 4: Cincinnati, OH (CVG) to Buffalo, NY (BUF) on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 8:10pm

CVG 9:32pmBUF Nonstop Delta 4464

CRJ 100

operated by Skywest Air

In-Flight Services

Coach (K)

View Seats

 

 

 

1 hr 22 min

 

Price per passenger:$253.00 (USD) Taxes/Fees: $39.40 (USD) Subtotal per passenger:$292.40 (USD)

Total for all passengers (1):$292.40(USD)

[kenish]

Another suggestion is connecting through EWR, BOS, ORD, or MSP to Alaska Airlines to SEA. They are better than average in my book, and so are all the employees I've experienced flying on them.

 

BTW, 50-124 passengers is not a "small" plane. It will be typical for the routes especially out of BUF; you won't get a widebody. A 124-passenger 737 or A319 has just as much seat area space as a 757 or A321. Just curious as to why it makes any difference? In fact you will be able to deplane and get your baggage quicker on the smaller plane.

[boulders]

I would avoid Delta at all costs. I've flown about 150K miles over the past 4 years. I've flown with Delta exactly three times - all for cruises. Two out of the three times, they had a delay of 2 or more hours in the first leg of a 2 leg trip which caused me to miss my connecting flight. The second time was just about 2 weeks ago. Their plane was late arriving in Anchorage which caused our Anchorage to ATL flight to be 2.5 hours late arriving in ATL. Although theoretically, I still had 35 minutes to make my connection, between dragging a very tired 4 year old and having to change terminals (there's 5 in ATL), it took more than 25 minutes to deplane and get to my next gate. My ds ran ahead, arrived 10 minutes before departure time and found no one at the gate. When I arrived, there was also no one at the gate. When the gate agent finally did appear, still before departure time, he said that the plane had already left. I asked him why that was, since we had been told on the originating flight that all of our connections were aware that we were going to be late. He said that they NEVER hold a plane and that it is always pushed back 10 minutes before departure time. I have had similar situations on other airlines, and the plane has been held a few minutes for us. As a consequence of Delta's mismanagement, we spent an extra 6 hours in transit from Anchorage to Buffalo, NY. I'd take any other airline before Delta, even if I had to pay significantly more.

[Globaliser]

For our return from Sydney, what airports would you avoid - L.A. - San Francisco - Vancouver, or are they all easy to get around? I know we will have to land in one of them.

Personally, I would avoid LA unless there were some other good reasons for flying through it.

 

Just to give you some perspective on this, for very many years Air New Zealand's flagship route was Auckland-Los Angeles-London.

 

In recent years, they lost so much business to other airlines because of the transit stop at LA that they have started an Auckland-Hong Kong-London route to try to keep more of the Auckland-London traffic to themselves.

[scottbee]

Hi All:

 

I should probably post this on the airline thread but, I wanted to get Princess passengers experiences since one of our cruises will probably be through Princess as it is split air through two distant cities. (Toronto to San Francisco and Sydney to Toronto). The other cruise is to and from Seattle.

 

If I book the Alaskan cruise from Buffalo to Seattle on my own, what airlines and airplanes should I avoid?

I have looked at some scheduling and some are Buffalo to Atlanta to Seattle, some are Buffalo to Cleveland to Seattle, some are Buffalo to Chicago to Seattle. They all seem to be small planes (50 to 124 seat ones) The prices are 1/2 of what I would pay direct from Toronto to Seattle, so it makes sense to go out of Buffalo.

 

What airlines are on time? (as there is just one hour between some of these flights)

 

We have very rarely booked a one stop trip. I can remember only one from Toronto to Barcelona on British Air through Heathrow. Liked British Air very much but the crowds in Heathrow were daunting.

 

For our return from Sydney, what airports would you avoid - L.A. - San Francisco - Vancouver, or are they all easy to get around? I know we will have to land in one of them.

 

BUF-SEA. To my knowledge no one flies this route directly. I think the only option with a non-stop is YYZ-SEA on AC. If you do want to fly BUF-SEA, you could do it via a number of different cities, and frankly these days most of the airlines offer a pretty similar product.

 

You may also price out YYZ-YVR and then go from Vancouver - Seattle on the train.

 

As for YYZ-SFO and SYD-YYZ, you'll probably be on UA or AC for YYZ-SFO

 

for SYD-YYZ there are a few options

SYD-LAX-YYZ (Qantas)

SYD-SFO-YYZ (United)

SYD-YVR-YYZ (Air Canada)

SYD-AKL-YVR-YYZ (Air New Zealand)

 

Personally I would think the two latter ones are the better choice, as you avoid entering the USA (which is a pain at best or in the case of LAX requires you to change terminal buildings on the wrong side of security). Either way, AVOID LAX.

 

All those people that say YVR are bad, are mostly reflecting on the delays of entering the USA at the US pre-clearance. If you're not flying to the USA, YVR is the best airport on the west coast, and if you are it's the USA DHS' problem, not YVR's.

 

Avoid LAX (did I mention that already)?

[SelectSys]

I can understand why the OP wants to consider avoiding Pearson and head down to Buffalo instead. I plugged in some mid week travel dates in January flying the OP's outbound to SFO and return from SYD. The trip on Delta/Northwest returning via LA yielded a price of $1.5k US / person while service on Air Canada returning through Vancouver for the same dates was $4.7k US / person.

 

My advice to the OP is to do some hard shopping to see what the fare differences really look like for their specific dates. Decide what kind of fare difference you are willing to endure to avoid LAX or SFO. If it was me, I would have a tough time dealing with a fare difference of several thousand dollars or more per ticket but everyone has their own preferences.

 

BTW - LAX international arrivals can be a bit of a zoo depending on the time of day but is managable if you keep your sense of humor.

[twoputt.plusone]

I just did the Buffalo to Seattle via Atlanta flight on Air Tran a few days ago. The plane was a 737 with a seat configuration of 3 and 3. The airline is as good as any discount airline gets so no problem there whatsoever. We had a half hour delay on the tarmac on our return leg due to a mechanical problem in the baggage hold so keep that in mind if you have tight connections. Our schedule was an hour and a half at Atlanta that got reduced to an hour. If you don't mind spending up to 8 hours flying then this isn't a bad option. It didn't bother me so the huge price advantage made it well worth my while. If you're one of those people who have to have a non-stop route, then this isn't going to work for you.

 

Once you get to SEA/TAC there are several good options to get you either downtown or to the port.

 

2P.P1